Wooden Boat Wednesday: Yacht Races on the Eve of War, 1939

Welcome to another Wooden Boat Wednesday!

Today we spin the time dial back to a balmy summer weekend at the end of August 1939, with boats and high season celebrants lining the ocean beaches and bay shorelines in joyful competition and fun. As published in the Sunday Times of New Brunswick, Middlesex County, lifestyle reporter Mary P. Elliot filled her “Beach Combing” column with details of that day, the 27th, taking place in a small peaceful window between the end of the Great Depression and outbreak of what would become World War II, just five days later, with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.

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Warren Law, who races his moth "Lotta Work" at Barnegat Bay.

​Classes, courses, starting and finishing lines, handicaps, crews and rules will be the topic of many conversations this week-end all the way from Bay Head to Toms River.
Today at Bay Head, the Bay Head Yacht Club is sponsoring the first annual handicap ocean race ever to be held off the Jersey coast. The course will be from the ocean front at Bay Head to Barnegat Lightship and return.
Dr. E.L. Loblein, formerly of this city, who has spent many years at this resort with his family, is Commodore of the yacht club and chairman of the racing committee. His committee has planned a reception and dinner dance for the visiting yachtsmen during the week-end. Dr. Loblein recently sold his home at 177 Livingston avenue and will now make his winter home in Point Pleasant on the Manasquan river.

Mrs. E.O. Loblein at Bay Head.

Governor Moore Officiates
At 8 this morning Governor A. Harry Moore officiated at the starting gun before the Bluffs Hotel on the Bay Head boardwalk.
About 25 boats, sloop, schooner and yawl classes from clubs along the seaboard are entered in the race. Club represented include the New York Yacht Club, Gibson Island Yacht Squadron, the Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia, Little Egg Harbor and many others from Chesapeake Bay to Long Island Sound.

Robert Nafey on his comet "Bobcat."

Toms River Event Yesterday
The Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association sponsored the 11th race held yesterday under the auspices of the Toms River Yacht Club, when all the clubs on the bay were represented. The races were held on the Cedarcreek course off Pinewald near Forked River.

Dr. Herbert W. Nafey on his motor cruiser "Esquire."

Race Moth and Sneakbox
In the morning when the moths, comets and sneakboxes raced, a representative from this area was Tommy King, son of Dr. and Mrs. V.L. King of Middlebrook road, Bound Brook, who, with his family, spends the summer at Lavallette. Tommy with his sneakbox “Barnegat Belle” is one of the contenders for the Lavallette Yacht Club championship for this year.
Warren Law of Dunellen, who is also at Lavallette for the summer, raced his moth “Lotta Work” in the morning events.

Francis Howley on his sneakbox "Applejack."

Will Sail the “Applejack”
Sunday afternoon races are held each week at every yacht club along the bay. Today will find Francis Howley at Lavallette in the thick of the club race in his sneakbox “Applejack,” starting at 10:30 a.m. Francis is the son of Dr. and Mrs. B.M. Howley of 15 North Sixth avenue, Highland Park. The Howley family have been spending their summers at this resort for about 15 years.

Thomas King on his sneakbox "Barnegat Belle."

“Bobcat” trails “Windbeam”
Last week during this club race Miss Catherine Nafey won in her comet “Windbeam,” and her brother, Robert, also racing his comet “Bobcat” came in second. This pair usually races in the Saturday races, too, but only Bob raced at Toms River yesterday. Their father and mother, Dr. and Mrs. Herbert W. Nafey of 133 Benner street, Highland Park, who summer at Lavallette, can always be seen at the Saturday and Sunday races in their motor cruiser the “Esquire.” They follow the sailors about on their course with many racing enthusiasts on board during the events.

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